I was being silly, a farrier shoes horses, as a child I remember that when my uncle had his horses done by the local farrier he did a "hot fit" and the resulting smoke was pretty funky, a smell not soon forgotten.

I retired from the Air Force Aircraft as an Aircraft Mechanic in 1989, then I had to get out and go to work for a living. I worked 1 1/2 yrs at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach on the then new MD-11, transferred to the Saudi Arabian Project Peace Sun project, trying to teach those who didn't want to learn that which they didn't want to learn. Now, work as a contractor Senior Phase A & P mechanic at Vance AFB, OK on T-1A Jayhawks. (same as the civilian 400 Beechjet). You gotta go where the job is.

Litigation manager here. I basically give away money in court and settlement conferences just prior to trial to people who were allegedly injured by our insureds... I guess that makes me the nice guy in an insurance company?

Hey Vicman! I'm about 80% complete on the bluecore foamy FA18. I'll post some pics when done. Not making it fancy, just trying to get it built with a few minutes here and there. My EDF conversion FA18 had been ready to fly for a couple months just waiting on a free weekend, bigger huevos, and some nice weather. Last weekend my wife decided she would climb up on a ladder to get a sleeping bag out of the rafters. Long story short she dropped it on the FA18 that was hanging in the garage busting off one vertical fin and putting a good size crack through one wing. One more project back on the backlogged assembly line... Given I've had a hard time getting enough time to get out to a flying field, I just ordered a helicopter this weekend to fly in my yard (Blade CP). Hoping the learning curve isn't too steep. Going to load up a flight sim now and crash a few helicopters before the real thing gets here...

For several years I drove a truck, but for the last 5 months have been trying my hand at a real job, working shift work for a paper coating facility. Very often I do miss driving! The inside of this is nicer than the outside if you can believe that

I started out as free labor on my Daddy's tobacco farm (15 years) until I left for the Air Force. We got the last of the crop in the barn and I headed to California the next day. I also drove a school bus in high school as a 16-18 year old. After I received my Navigator wings in 1983, I flew 3 years as a WSO in F-4Es. Got a chance to go to pilot training even with bad eyes, and ended up with an F-16. Flew them for about 10 years and 1500 hours and got to live in places like AZ, SC, Spain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. I flew the F-16A block 15, F-16C block 30 (a very nice plane with the bigmouth GE-can you say 800 cal at SL), 32, 40, 42 (worst F-16 ever), 50 and 52. It was neat to say I used to fly them but 9g's just hurts as you get older. My last assignment was in the mighty T-37 at a pilot training base (I had no pride left) trying to not let the student pilot kill me. I have to laugh when I watch shows about the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels and they make a big deal about flying so close together in formation and how hard it is. They should try it with a student who never flew formation in his life until a week ago and now he is 3' away solo doing maneuvers up to 90 degrees of bank while your student screws him over because he does not really grasp the meaning of "wingman consideration". I managed to survive to retirement and now live to collect my little check from the Government every month.

I became a professional piddler. I am now building my house (everything but the brickwork) and may actually finish it one day. I also fly a KingAir 200 for a local company. I though I was lined up to fly for a company called SAS on their new Hawker 400 but it didn't work out. I hoped I could get my toe in the door and someday get checked out on their Citation X or BBJ. In that world, it's who you know. The KingAir is pretty fun to fly and you get to see how the other half lives. I used to make fun of that kind of flying until I went 11 different places in one long day. I'm not really interested in the airline business so at least I get to keep my hand in.

I discovered Ebay a couple of years ago and can now say that I have almost (~60) every plane I ever wanted. I may actually build most of them before I die.